Recent comments in /f/news

Jenipherocious t1_jdlxz01 wrote

Reply to comment by A179E49GFZ68722R23 in Tornado hits western Mississippi as storms knock out power for thousands. A town is 'gone,' resident says | CNN by A179E49GFZ68722R23

The youtube weather channel Ryan Hall, Y'all was doing live stream coverage of the storms last night after tracking its development for several days. The towns of Rolling Fork and Silver Spring were practically obliterated and the images the storm chasers were sending in just minutes after the tornado passed are devastating. So many small communities were directly hit and the radar and satellite data was showing the debris field as high as 30,000ft up in the air and spreading over almost half the state.

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kittysback t1_jdlxqzb wrote

Reply to comment by katarina-stratford in Tornado hits western Mississippi as storms knock out power for thousands. A town is 'gone,' resident says | CNN by A179E49GFZ68722R23

Mississippian here, currently living just north of the path of yesterday’s tornado.

As someone else said, most of us have no place to go. Centralized shelters are few and far between, and Mississippi clay (our type of regional soil) makes it almost impossible for people to build affordable basements—basements just aren’t a thing here. Where I am, it’s pine forests for miles, so there’s a non-negligible possibility that you run into a downed tree in an attempt to find a shelter.

Rolling Fork in particular is very rural. If you’ve never been to the Delta, it’s hard to fathom, but it is very sparsely populated. I’ve lived in bigger and smaller Mississippi towns, and when you live closer to folks, you see activity and feel something different when it’s serious. Neighbors will check on you and then you know. When you’re isolated in a rural place, sometimes it’s hard to know. In addition, the Delta is very, very, VERY flat, so in this case, the tornado had little resistance from the natural environment.

My final thought, and something I admit I do: tornados do happen quickly, and we get warnings, but a lot of Mississippians and southerners don’t necessarily take them seriously. There are plenty of memes about this, and it’s unfortunately true because we get warnings for them quite frequently. This year, where I live, we’ve had them 7 times, including one 3 weeks ago. I usually start getting nervous when I hear hail (had it last night), but deadly storms don’t always produce it. But again, Mississippi is still quite rural, and some people don’t have dependable cell service. A friend of mine who lives out in the county only got last night’s message after it had passed through.

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VaccumSaturdays OP t1_jdlxozk wrote

Reply to Xcel Energy to power down Monticello nuclear plant early after more radioactive water leaks out by VaccumSaturdays

From another article:

Xcel Energy to temporarily shut down Monticello nuclear plant after two radioactive water leaks; company says no threat to public Minnesota

BY WCCO STAFF, JOHN LAURITSEN UPDATED ON: MARCH 24, 2023 / 3:06 PM / CBS MINNESOTA

MONTICELLO, Minn. -- An Xcel Energy nuclear plant in Monticello will temporarily shut down after officials found more radioactive water leaking from the facility.

The company says they'll bring the facility offline to make repairs and conduct a series of inspections. The leak poses no safety concerns for the public, according to the company.

Late last year, 400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from the premises, though the public wasn't informed until last week.

On Wednesday, the plant's monitoring equipment detected hundreds of gallons worth of radioactive water since the crews made temporary repairs, and that it had reached groundwater. Officials say the contaminated water, containing the radioactive isotope tritium, has not yet reached the Mississippi River, which runs next to the plant.

When the leak was first detected back in November, Xcel used a catchment and a pumping strategy to recovered the water containing tritium. They say they've recovered about 30% of that water so far. But over the past couple days, some of that radioactive water was spilling over the catchment, creating a new leak.

At a press conference Friday morning, Xcel Energy's Chris Clark said there was "no drinking water concern, no safety concern, no concern to the environment."

"We are capturing the water from the leak, we were able to take that water and process it in our plant," he said. "We are bringing the plant offline over the next, couple of days here. We'll let the plant cool, we'll cut that pipe out, we'll send that pipe out to a lab and do a full root cause analysis of why that pipe failed."

He added there was no threat to groundwater in the area and he also doesn't anticipate any impact on electric service. Even if the plant were to stay offline during peak winter or peak summer needs, the company has "enough margin" that they'll have the ability to provide service during those times, Clark added.

Xcel reported the initial leak in November of 2022, and state officials -- alongside the national Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- defended the choice to delay notification for months due to its small scale.

Xcel Energy says it is confident it'll be able to bring the plant back online safely, but Clark said it's hard to say just how long the plant will be offline.

"It shows the importance of making sure we get regulation, we get transparency. Minnesotans deserve to know," Gov. Tim Walz said. "I think today was the expectation that Minnesotans have - a very quick notification that this happened and a very aggressive decision to shut the plant down for now."

Walz: Monticello nuclear leak shows need for "regulation," "transparency"

"I just want Minnesotans to know that our role with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and our agencies it to monitor and make sure there is no health risk - that still remains the case," he added.

The city of Minneapolis said on Friday that their Water Treatment and Distribution Services is taking the precautionary step of developing plans to make sure that the water it delivers is not impacted in the event of contamination.

What is tritium?

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen which is created as a byproduct of nuclear reactors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It's most commonly found in the form of water, as the isotope reacts with oxygen to create water.

It can also be found naturally in very low concentrations in the environment, including in the upper atmosphere, when cosmic rays collide with nitrogen molecules.

Valerie Myers, a health physicist with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told WCCO last week that the amount of tritium that's in the Monticello plant water is negligible.

"If we look at the dose impact of something like this, it would be a fraction of a milligram. I'm talking 0.00-something milligrams. The average person will get 300 milligram in a year just from the sun, the ground, everything," Myers said.

According to the NRC, tritium does not travel far, and cannot penetrate the skin.

"I don't ever want to see a situation like this in the future"

Monticello community members attended an open house on Friday morning, concerned that Xcel didn't properly notify them when the first leak was detected.

Megan Sanborn, who lives in the city, said she wants to hold the energy company accountable.

"To maintain that transparency in the future. I don't ever want to see a situation like this in the future happen again," she said.

Cole Hendry and his family live in town. He says they weren't made aware of the situation until last week.

"A 4-month gap is a little strange when you have a nuclear leak or some radioactive activity in your own backyard so I just want to make sure we stay in the know," said Hendry.

Clark said the notification gap is "certainly a lesson we'll take from this. We value our relationship with the city of Monticello and the residents here."

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TheMadTargaryen t1_jdlwt60 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Muslim population in Spain increased 10 times in last 30 years by madrid987

>It is true that during the period of Islamic rule in Cordoba, there was a great flourishing of learning, trade, and the arts. However, it is also important to note that the Islamic rulers of Cordoba were not known for their personal tolerance towards non-Muslims. While there were periods of relative peace and coexistence, the treatment of Jews and Christians under Islamic rule was not always ideal. For example, there were periodic outbreaks of violence against non-Muslims, and Jews and Christians were often subjected to discriminatory laws and heavy taxation. On one side are the Martyrs of Cordoba while on another is the Granada massacre of 1066. Also the Spanish Reconquista did not occur in a vacuum. The Christian rulers of Spain were motivated in part by a desire to reclaim their land and culture, which had been cruely subjugated by Islamic conquerors. it is true that the Jewish and Muslim populations were ultimately expelled or forced to convert, but it is important to note that these actions were not unique to Christian rulers. Muslim conquerors had also forcibly expelled or converted populations during their conquests.

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ConvolutedFluid t1_jdlvqwz wrote

Reply to comment by d3lphicmoon in Tornado hits western Mississippi as storms knock out power for thousands. A town is 'gone,' resident says | CNN by A179E49GFZ68722R23

This.

Several of the top 10 deadliest in US history have occurred in MS. Many other tornadoes with lesser but still substantial numbers of casualties have plagued the state. Most of these are quite violent, earning F4 and F5 ratings. The intensity, coupled with the state's historically impoverished population living in cheap housing leads to disastrous consequences. Storm shelters or installing a basement are costly things as well. It's also my understanding that parts of the state have a high water table making it challenging to do anyways.

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